Why “Farm Raised” Fish are Dangerous to your Health

Summary: All Farm raised fish are dangerous to your health. The blog focuses on Salmon, but discusses the dangers of all farm raised fish and the high levels of mercury now found in all fish. The one provider I do continue to buy fish from is linked below.

Excerpts from Dr. Mercola:

Alaska is incredible at protecting their brand when it comes to seafood, and do an excellent job to ensure quality and sustainability. If you don't see the 'Alaska' label or a logo from the Marine Stewardship Council - the seafood you are buying is likely farmed and dangerously unhealthy, as with all farmed fish (see below). I recommend using Vital Choice for fresh Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon (link below) Seafood labeled as "Alaskan" cannot be farmed.

Environmental experts have warned about the unsustainability of fish farms for over a decade, yet nothing has been done to address such concerns.
Instead of addressing these issues, government agencies and environmental organizations around the world have consistently chosen to ignore predictions of disaster, both to the environment and human health, to protect instead the profitability of this burgeoning industry.

On June 16, the Norwegian Health Department actually went on the record warning against eating too much farmed salmon:

“We have reviewed the Scientific Committee report again and looked at the recommendations that were there and how this was discussed in the report of the National Nutrition Council in 2011.
There, they discussed all research related to toxicology and health effects thoroughly, and we have based our evaluations on their report. They did not provide this clarification. Now we see that there is a need for clarifications to pregnant women and young women.”

The new, official recommendation to Norwegian women of childbearing age or who are pregnant is to limit consumption of fatty fish such as salmon to a maximum of two such meals per week.

Farmed Salmon—An Environmental and Nutritional Nightmare

Alexandra Morton was one of the first biologists to discover that wild salmon in British Columbia were testing positive for dangerous European salmon viruses associated with salmon farming worldwide—a finding that the Canadian government has since fought to suppress. The revelations of health hazards discussed in the Norwegian media came as a surprise even to her, seeing how Norway is the “motherland” of salmon farming; the entire industry originating from Norsk Hydro, which is the country’s largest public company.
“The salmon feedlot industry in British Columbia is 98 percent Norwegian-owned, and one of the companies is largely owned by the Norwegian government itself, Cermaq,” Morton explains.
On June 19, media reports stated that “Russia fears that Norwegian salmon is unsafe and is critical of Norwegian food security.”

Why Farmed Salmon May Be Hazardous to Your Health

As explained by Morton in the video above, Dr. Anne-Lise Birch Monsen at the University of Bergen, Norway, has raised serious concerns about high levels of contaminants in farm-raised salmon. The contaminants in question originate in wild salmon, courtesy of environmental pollution. These toxic contaminants bind to the fat molecules in wild fish, and when these fish are ground up for use in fish meal together with added high-fat fish oils, these molecules can enter your body where they bind to your cells.
While this can certainly cause health problems for you, it can also pose a very serious threat to the health of your unborn children. As explained by Morton, when you give birth, your body dumps up to 90 percent of the accumulated toxins in your body into the body of your first-born child. More toxins are later expelled through your breast milk. This is why it’s so critical to avoid toxic exposures throughout childhood and early adulthood, to prevent damage to future generations as well as your own life cycle…
According to Dr. Monsen:

“I do not recommend pregnant women, children or young people eat farmed salmon. It is uncertain in both the amount of toxins salmon contain, and how these drugs affect children, adolescents and pregnant women… The type of contaminants that have been detected in farmed salmon have a negative effect on brain development and is associated with autism, ADD / ADHD and reduced IQ. We also know that they can affect other organ systems in the body’s immune system and metabolism.”
As reported by Alexandra Morton, a large European study involving about 8,000 newborns found that pregnant women with high levels of toxins in their bodies tend to give birth to children with lower birth weight, which in and of itself may have an adverse on the child’s health.

Omega-3 Levels in Farmed Salmon Is Nearly Half of That in Wild Salmon

Another Norwegian article reveals that levels of critical omega-3 fats have been reduced by about 50 percent in farmed salmon, compared to wild salmon, due to increasing amounts of grain feed. One articlehttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/07/09/farmed-salmon-dangers.aspx?e_cid=20130709_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20130709 - _edn4 refers to farmed salmon as “swimming corncobs.” Furthermore:
“[T]he Norwegian food production’s four Norwegian feed producers now have an exemption to use 19 different genetically modified ingredients in their feed. Genetic modification (GM) is very controversial, and completely excluded in Norwegian agriculture,” the article states.

As explained by Morton, Endosulfan is a toxic pesticide known to attack the nervous system, and can increase the risk of autism and cause birth defects to the male human reproductive system. Further complicating the situation and raising new questions about safety is the fact that, in April of this year, the EU also made it official that pigs and chickens can be used in farmed salmon feed! Since when do salmon eat a diet of grains, pork and poultry? Just what kind of fish do you end up with when they’re given this kind of diet?

All "Farmed Raised" fish are dangerous to your Health

It’s important to realize that farm raised fish of ALL species can spell disaster for your health in a number of ways. Just like you need an optimal diet to be healthy, all other animals need their optimal diet as well. And fish were never meant to eat corn, grains, or poultry and pork for that matter. In addition to this unnatural diet, farmed fish of all species are also given a concoction of vitamins, antibiotics, and depending on the fish, synthetic pigments to make up for the lack of natural flesh coloration due to the altered diet.

Without it, the flesh of caged salmon, for example, would be an unappetizing, pale gray. The fish are also fed pesticides, along with compounds such as toxic copper sulfate, which is frequently used to keep nets free of algae.Not only do you ingest these drugs and chemicals when you eat the fish, but these toxins also build up in sea-floor sediments. In this way, industrial fish farming raises many of the same environmental concerns about chemicals and pollutants that are associated with feedlot cattle and factory chicken farms. In addition, fish waste and uneaten feed further litter the sea floor beneath these farms, generating bacteria that consume oxygen vital to shellfish and other bottom-dwelling sea creatures.
Studies have also consistently found levels of PCBs, dioxins, toxaphene and dieldrin, as well as mercury, to be higher in farm-raised fish than wild fish. The reason for this, as discussed above, is because wild fish are caught and ground up into fish meal to be fed to the farmed fish, which concentrates any contamination found in each individual wild fish... Sadly, even wild-caught fish have already reached such toxic levels that it's impossible to recommend eating them with a clear conscience anymore.
For example, according to a US Geological Survey study, mercury contamination was detected in EVERY fish sampled in nearly 300 streams across the United States. More than a quarter of these fish contained mercury at levels exceeding the EPA criterion for the protection of human health. So, when you consider the fact that factory farmed fish typically are even MORE toxic than wild-caught fish and also contain an assortment of antibiotics and pesticides, avoiding them becomes a no-brainer – at least if you're concerned about your health.To learn more about the differences between farmed salmon and wild salmon, specifically, please seeDr. Mercola’s interview with Randy Hartnell, founder-president of Vital Choice Wild Seafood and Organics. I'm a huge fan of their wild sockeye salmon, and beside a fish dinner at a restaurant here or there, Vital Choice salmon is about the only type of fish I eat. Wild Alaskan salmon from Vital Choice is well over 75 percent of my current choice of protein when I’m not traveling. Click on picture below

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